Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World to permanently close

May 18, 2023 in "Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser"

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Posted: Thursday May 18, 2023 3:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

After being in operation for just over a year, Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will make its final voyage on September 28, 2023 and will then permanently close.

Then Disney CEO Bob Chapek at Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser

In announcing the closure, Disney told news outlets, "Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is one of our most creative projects ever and has been praised by our guests and recognized for setting a new bar for innovation and immersive entertainment. This premium, boutique experience gave us the opportunity to try new things on a smaller scale of 100 rooms, and as we prepare for its final voyage, we will take what we've learned to create future experiences that can reach more of our guests and fans."

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser overview

Disney is contacting guests booked on the cancelled Starcruiser voyages and says it hopes to relocate Cast Members to other roles at Walt Disney World.

The official Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser website has been updated with a message confirming the the closure.

The final voyage for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser will take place September 28-30, 2023. We are so proud of all of the Cast Members and Imagineers who brought Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to life and look forward to delivering an excellent experience for Guests during the remaining voyages over the coming months. Thank you to our Guests and fans for making this experience so special.

For Guests who previously booked a voyage on or after September 30, 2023, we will be contacting you soon to discuss your options and modify your plans. As we prioritize these Guests, at this time, new bookings are temporarily paused and will reopen on May 26, 2023.

Carrying a lofty price tag of around $5200 for the two-day, two-night experience, Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser launched on March 1 2022. After stronger-than-expected initial sales, Starcruiser bookings quickly stalled, forcing Disney to look to save costs and boost reservations.

Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser overview

Most recently, Disney began canceling voyages in the summer that had very few bookings, moving guests to other dates with a 50% discount for the inconvenience. Disney also offered various discounts, including Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club deals.

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Animaniac93-981 hour ago

Exactly. Jenny was someone who understood the vibes, the concept, and wanted to actively participate as much as possible. She didn't misunderstand what the Starcruiser was, she was 100% open and willing to give it a fair shot. She outlines many, many things that went wrong or didn't live up to her expectations, but in the "schedule" section of the video she talks about how it also "broke my body" and made her feel sick (forcing her to leave dinner on the 2nd night and stay in her room for a bit) because of how taxing and overscheduled this "luxury vacation experience" was, even though she didn't do everything possible at every minute. "I really can't imagine doing Starcruiser with little kids, or if you had health problems...you could but you'd have to accept you'd miss a lot things to take breaks or nap" Yikes. She breaks down the cost and says it came down to $2/person/minute, excluding time to sleep, shower etc. When you're paying that kind of money, not only are your expectations high, but you can't afford to not do things. It's insane. It's a fascinating, hilarious and extremely well researched video, but also so upsetting to know what she was put through or missed out on after spending $6k and how some things only got resolved because she has a lot of followers on Twitter.

Tha Realest1 hour ago

That such a person had so much to dislike about this project tells you how far they missed the mark.

ChrisFL1 hour ago

not a big fan of hers, she loved The Last Jedi but hated Rogue One, so I call in to question her Star Wars expertise :p j/k, I'll probably watch it sometime.

Movielover3 hours ago

Jenny Nicholson just released a fantastic video about her experience onboard and the failure of the Starcruiser. As someone who really wanted to see this idea succeed its incredible to see just how much Disney blundered this concept.

Sirwalterraleigh24 days ago

I think a Charlie sheen would be more appropo here 😎

SteveAZee24 days ago

It's the opposite of "fur babies"... shaved cats. (don't Google)

monothingie24 days ago

MisterPenguin24 days ago

Is that what people are calling their children nowadays? "cats"?

Sirwalterraleigh24 days ago

…remember there’s about 10,000 college programmers in the area.

ToTBellHop24 days ago

Me, too. Sick and tired of people sneaking their cats into hotels and letting them pee on everything!

PREMiERdrum24 days ago

I stopped traveling with a blacklight years ago.

pdude8124 days ago

Oh man. We had a needle and thread in one of our towels Easter week. I just cut it out and notified the front desk on check out. They did offer me late check out if I need it though :p